Every winter we come to a point where we just wish for summer, even during the relatively mild winter of 2011-2012.
Not many of us wished for this summer, with record high heat and record low rain, especially not the dairy farmers for whom I work. Say a prayer for them and all farmers, and in fact, all who depend in some measure on the weather to survive.
My mom often talked about her teenage summers in the 1930s, which she spent in Altoona, Iowa, working in a canning plant in nearby Grimes, paying the farmers who brought in their corn. They flirted with her. At night, the family often slept on the grass in the front yard of the home, hoping to catch some hint of cool air that mostly never came. That was their reality.
My grandmother talked about those same days – how her husband and others in the community took turns sitting on top of the small town’s bank, armed with shotguns, looking out for bank robbers such as Bonnie and Clyde and Wilber Underhill. It was hot.
Even John Dillinger went to the Biograph Theater the night he was killed to find cooling – by refrigeration.
I remember how quiet and still my boyhood home was during hot weekend afternoons. We kept the drapes closed to allow the window units work at their best. I can still see the Emerson QuietKool air conditioner in my bedroom.
Generations before us just toughed it out. We shouldn’t feel bad for keeping our cool when we can. Had our grandparents had access to air conditioning, they would have opted to enjoy it.
And let’s enjoy next winter a little more.
~ Mike
Love this story!…My dad was an Iowan…raised on a farm…I remember the day waaay back when…my dad came home with this his huge box…it was the air conditioner…I remember loving the quiet hum lulling us all to sleep…I also remember the day when we got our first color TV…us kids huddled on the sofa, watching Bonanza..loved “Little joe”…
I pray for the farmers!…
Born and raised in Chicago I remember that 1967 snow storm. I was 13. We lived in the North side of Chicago in the second floor of a 2 story apartment building.The snow covered the first floor windows and stopped midway to us. I don’t remember seeing green until way into May. Store owners put handwritten signs in their windows “THINK GREEN”.
As for air-conditioning, didn’t have that. Most apartments in the city had what my mom called a dogtrot hallway. Sunroom in the front and a screened back porch in the back and a long hallway in between. We prayed for a breeze.
Our street was treelined on both sides, it looked like a tunnel when you were in the middle of the street.
I love those memories. Thanks for sharing.
What a great post! I remember our first A/C and the amazement of going from outdoor heat to indoor cool! I also was in Chicago during the 67 blizzard and we had 7 kids in our family all snowed in the house….couldn’t get the front door open the snow was so high! Took my dad 3 days to shovel a path to his truck to go to work! Now I’m in Missouri and I’m praying for all of our farmers in the midwest. And yes….I’ll enjoy the winter a little more this year. Thanks for the reminder!
On our news last night they showed an aerial view of dry corn fields. Seeing the big swaths of light brown puts the scale into perspective. I just wonder sometimes if everyone in the big cities realize how it works to get from field to table or barn. The cattle has to eat too.
But I’m still maybe not so much looking forward to winter.
~Bliss~
You’re a brave woman letting your “sponsor” post! If my “sponsor” posted he’d say something like “I wish all you guys would stop giving my wife all these ideas of stuff that needs to be changed!”
Too late, honey! PINHEADS UNITE!
Fun Post I love history and old pics.
Great post! I loved the stories! We would be SO happy to share our rain with you! We have already broken one 90-yr old record and it looks like we are working on another.
You know, I’m kinda loving summer so far. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my fellow babysitter – I mean husband – is off all summer, but I’m hoping it just never ends!
Loved this post. Very nostalgic for sure.
Funny you mentioned Bonnie and Clyde…we have a small ‘rock’ jailhouse in the little town where I live called the ‘calaboose’…there is a plaque outside there that tells how members of the Clyde Barrow gang were held there back in their heyday. We didn’t sleep in the grass…but we had a screened in tent that my parents would put up in the back yard and we’d sleep in that on nights that were hot…and the A/C was out…
Today, The Honey and I live in a little country farm house–not a lot of insulation in it…we use window units when it gets to warm to bare it…we also keep the curtains drawn to help keep it cool.
there’s much to learned from our ancestors for sure!
~enjoyed it, Pat
Yay! I love Mike posts, too! People have no idea how easy they have it nowadays.
Signed, Spoiled-Rotten-Nowadays-Dweller
Hi Linda
I am loving your blog. I am going to attempt to do the linky thing next week. Anyway, when I was looking at the “hosts” I went to your FB page and Liked but I was drawn to your blog. You are so real…not intimidating. Anyway, just wanted to share that. Wish me luck in figuring out this linky business.
great post..and yes it sure has been a hot summer…especially weird here in Ontario Canada…but I sure didn’t need to see the reminder of what might be around the corner – I hate snow! lol
Cheryl from Ontario
This post brings back such good memories of summers with my family as I was growing up. The huge fan we had in our upstairs hallway to suck the hot air out. Eating dinner in our basement because the kitchen was 90 degrees. One week every summer in a tumble-down cottage on a lake in Michigan. It’s hot and dry but I’m trying not to complain because it isn’t affecting my livelihood. The farmers can’t really say that. Prayers out to them for sure.